We have continued to deliver on our promises during
the past year despite increasingly tougher market
conditions. We are reporting a second consecutive
year of double-digit growth in underlying Group
profit before tax* at 10.8 per cent and an increase
in underlying operating profit* growth for Sainsbury’s
Supermarkets of 13.3 per cent. In the US, Shaw’s
has had an
excellent year despite difficult economic conditions,
achieving
a 9.7 per cent increase in underlying profit.* |
| |
| In the UK we have made
significant achievements
in modernising our business
through our transformation
programme and continued
to deliver an improved
sales performance despite
more normal market growth
following the previous
year’s buoyant conditions. |
| |
| We delivered £210 million of cost savings, £10
million above target giving a cumulative total of
£460 million. We are confident we can deliver £250
million of savings in 2003/04 exceeding our March
2004 target of £700 million and also expect further
savings of at least £250 million in 2004/05 to extend
the cumulative total to £960 million. UK capital
expenditure peaked at £1,035 million due to the
high level of Business Transformation activity and
will reduce to around £800 million for 2003/04.
Shaw’s capital expenditure in 2003/04 will increase
due to a significant increase in sales area and
we estimate Group capital expenditure to be £1.1
billion. |
| |
| The Group has increased
its return on capital
employed from 11.1 per
cent to 11.5 per cent
in a year of significant
capital investment. Overall
we remain confident we
are making real progress
across the Group to achieve
our targets. |
| |
